General

what is a helpline? helplines, also known as hotlines or crisis call centres, are a category of mental health and behavioral health service they are a free and accessible way for people to get immediate help with thoughts of suicide, abusive situations, and other crises helplines are proven to measurably reduce suicidal ideation in those contacting them, and are best practice for suicide and crisis prevention, as recommended by the world health organization throughline defines a helpline as a service that provides this definition is further explained in the table below false falsefalse unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type how does throughline qualify helplines for inclusion? we developed a 9 point scoring system to assess if a service is a legitimate and active helpline all potential services must pass at least stage 7 of this scoring system to be included further information on our qualification criteria is available upon request how does throughline maintain the accuracy of its helpline data? throughline maintains helpline dataset health through three processes verification, validation, and dataset audits and maintenance false false 124false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type how do you ensure services are effective? to achieve throughline’s mission of easing emotional crises, we ensure that all services meet certain standards of inclusive care our clinical team has used evidence backed research to set these standards, and all partners are asked to agree to them as part of our verification process these standards are summarised below false falsefalse unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type throughline provides helpline services in over 140 countries why do some countries not have helplines? throughline endeavors to list every active helpline in the world unfortunately, some countries do not have helplines or have low topic coverage commonly, there are 3 reasons false false 143false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type how are helplines ranked in the web app, widget and api? helplines are ranked using a multi layered algorithm designed to surface the most relevant, trusted, and accessible services for each user after implementation, this approach increased conversion rates to accessing helplines by 50% the ranking engine considers over a dozen factors, including topic relevance, availability (e g 24/7 services), verification status, and contact methods like phone, sms, or chat each search begins with the user’s selected country, region (if applicable), and topic from there, several layers of logic are applied custom ranking rules prioritize helplines that are verified, always open, and offer multiple ways to connect topic relevance favors more specialized services—helplines that support fewer topics are considered more focused and are ranked higher when relevant this is strengthened with synonym mapping for example, a search for “abuse & domestic violence” may return helplines that use terms like “refuge ” contextual rules improve specific scenarios for example if no topic is selected, widely available helplines that support high priority concerns (e g suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety) are ranked higher searches for "pregnancy & abortion" boost services that specialize in supporting women searches for "gender & sexual identity" boost services that specialize in supporting lgbtq+ people ai re ranking adjusts the order based on real user behavior—prioritizing helplines that people actually click or engage with most often together, these factors ensure that the services shown aren’t just relevant on paper—they’re the ones most likely to help how long does it take to integrate throughline? because the web app and widget come with pre built interfaces, they are very quick to integrate depending on your internal processes, we can have you up and running within 48 hours the api requires engineering expertise, and so takes longer to integrate the exact length depends on your product needs true falsefalse unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type can we only show information for certain topics? yes in the web app, you can refer users to a dedicated topic page ( e g suicidal thoughts )or a country specific topic page (e g suicide hotlines in the united states ) in the widget, you can pre set the topics in the api, you can call only the topics that you need i have a technical question or would like to share feedback who can i reach out to? please refer to our documentation for any questions related to calling our api if you need further assistance or want to provide feedback, please email us how can i cancel my subscription? you can cancel your subscription at any time, just reach out to our sales team